Staff compensation and benefits increased at foundations last year along with staff diversity, but not enough to keep up with inflation or stem employee turnover. Female executive compensation at foundations also lagged that of their male counterparts, and turnover rates were higher across the board last year for all foundation employees and were even higher at the managerial and executive levels.
The research findings are among the latest human resource data in the 2023 Grantmaker Salary and Benefits Report from the Council on Foundations. The 428-page report includes aggregated salary data on 10,733 full-time staff at foundations across the United States along with composite information related to employee gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability status and more.
“There’s no question that this year’s results show how philanthropy is responding to both the economic climate and the lingering effects of the pandemic,” Council on Foundations President and CEO Kathleen Enright said via a statement. “I’m heartened to see foundations responding with needed pay and benefit bumps. It’s also exciting that, for another year, grantmaking organizations were enriched by broader racial diversity in both staff and CEO roles.”
Staff salaries at foundations increased average of 5.5% during 2022, which came close to doubling the 3% average salary increases awarded during 2021. However, the higher pay increases still fell short of last year’s peak inflation rate that reached a 40-year high of 9.1%.
Perhaps not surprisingly due to the higher inflation rate, the improved pay failed to stanch the outflow of employees as foundations continued to struggle with retention. A total of 57% of foundations were impacted by staff departures during 2022, up from 50% during 2021. Other notable findings included in the report include:
- The mean turnover rate for all categories of foundation employees was 13.1% during 2022, up from 11% for 2021.
- The mean turnover rate for foundations’ administrative staff was 37.5% during 2022 vs. 33% for 2021.
- Staff diversity increased last year with people of color climbing as a percentage of full-time foundation employees to 32.7% during 2022 vs. 31% during 2021.
- The proportion of foundation CEOs who were people of color increased to 14.9% during 2022 vs. 12% for 2021.
- Females continued to constitute a majority of foundation CEOs, the proportion of which remained unchanged at 61%. On the flip side, “the gender pay gap persisted with female CEOs making 85.3 percent ($201,382) of the median salary reported for male CEOs ($236,080),” wrote the authors.
Foundation leaders have sought to increase employee retention in other ways including nonmonetary compensation such as sabbaticals, which 9% of foundation executives in the study reported offering to full-time staff and 6.3% to part-time staff. Nearly half (45%) also reported offering paternity leave, up from 42% the year prior; and 41.4% offered adoption leave as compared with 38% the year before.
The full report was prepared from responses provided by managers at 957 grantmaking organizations. The information is further broken down according to grantmaker type, foundation type, asset size, and geographic location. The report is free to Council on Foundations members and can be purchased by others online for $549.
